'Whining' Donald Trump got a taste of his own sexist medicine

When it comes to the Dictionary of Derogatory Adjectives for Women, ‘whining’ is on par with ‘bitchy’ and ‘bossy’.

But, ever committed to challenging perceptions, Barack Obama wheeled the diss out against Donald Trump this week, advising that he stop “whining” and “trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place.”

Well, Mr Trump, to quote my secondary school peers, you got told. More interesting than the war of words between presidents present and (hopefully not) future, though, was Obama’s choice of terminology.

Most women will have had the expression 'whiny' thrown at them, but to hear it used against a man? That felt different entirely.

For Matt, 22, the carefully crafted nature of political speeches meant its use was very much intentional. “On the one hand, you could choose to see it as a pithy rebuttal to Trump's day-to-day sexism; a subtle way of alluding to the misogyny running through most of the rhetoric he spouts.

“But perhaps it was unwise – maybe even hypocritical. Obama’s a dignified speaker, so there’s no need for him to degrade himself to the kinds of classless jabs Trump himself might use.”

We are taught to be maternal, warm and welcoming, so if they are seen to be deviating from that, people don’t like itIndia Ford, body language expert

“I think it was absolutely intentional – and well chosen at that,” she explains. “Trump tries to come across as macho; like he’s a man that can get away with whatever he wants, so this was a real dig at him. To dismiss him as whingeing and whining would have hit him where it hurts.”

That gendered language persists, however, is problematic – how can we ever exit the cycle which perpetually labels just one sex with unpleasant descriptors if we keep using them?

“It’s a shame that we have terms like ‘shrill’ and ‘feisty’ that are just used for women,” Ford admits, but believes there’s no chance of them falling out of use: at the training sessions she leads for workers in the City, such terms are constantly wheeled out to describe female behaviour – often when they are acting in the exact same way as their male counterparts. It's gendered criticism that Hillary Clinton (who has had voice coaching) would no doubt recognise.